The Forbidden Kingdom

The Forbidden Kingdom (Chinese: 功夫之王) is a 2008 Hollywood martial arts-adventure film directed by Rob Minkoff. It is the first film starring together two of the most well-known names in the martial arts film genre, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The action sequences were choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping. Filming was completed on August 24, 2007, and it went into post-production on September 29. The film was given the working title, The J & J Project, before being officially titled The Forbidden Kingdom in April of 2007. The movie has distribution in the United States through Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company. The Huayi Brothers Film & Taihe Investment Company is distributing in the People’s Republic of China.

Trailer : http://video.zoopers.net/musicvideo.php?vid=793188d8f

While the character Sun Wukong came from Wu Cheng’en’s famous classical novel Journey to the West, in an interview with Screen Power magazine, actor Collin Chou denied that the plotline will be related to the novel. The details of the plot were devised by screenwriter John Fusco along with actor Jet Li. Li explains,
“The screenwriter is a good friend of mine and we have been sparring partners for the past three years. I was among the first to get hold of the story and later we were joined by Jackie and others. The screenwriter and I discussed how to turn the story into a fantasy and dream-like film. He is a superb screenwriter and has been learning Chinese martial arts for more than 10 years. He has roughly put across in the film some of my basic understanding of martial arts and principles of Buddhism.”

In a behind the scenes article he wrote for Kung Fu Magazine, screen writer John Fusco stated he derived the surname for the Jason Tripitikas character from “the wandering monk, Tripitika, from JOURNEY TO THE WEST.”

Production began in early May 2007 in the area around the Gobi Desert in China. Before filming began, the entire cast did a costume fitting and a script read through, certain dialogues were altered to suit the different actors’ English speaking abilities; this was due to the majority of the cast having English as their second language. Chan described the first day of shooting as “very relaxing” because the shots only required drama and walking, with no action. When the two martial arts veterans (Chan and Li) did film action scenes together for the first time, they both expressed how easy it was to work with one another. Chan explained:
“ I have not worked with someone whom I’m comfortable with, in terms of movements, rhythm and natural reactions, in the last 10 years. I have done many fight scenes with others but there were usually more than 10 takes, which is a waste of time as the person may forget his moves and unnecessary injuries. When I fought with Li, our actions were quick. We also didn’t have to do the same stunt over 20 times. ”

The fight choreographer was Yuen Woo-ping. Yuen and Chan had not worked together in over 15 years, the last time being when Yuen worked as one of the action directors on Twin Dragons. Filming continued at the Wuyi Mountains and at the Hengdian World Studios. Filming finished on August 24, 2007.

~ by Fahmi on April 21, 2008.